The nursery had only a single story, more because of stairs being a potential hazard around tiny waddling people and less due to expense. Which also meant that it stretched across the plot, the only one made more of grass than asphalt in the city. Out in the back, there was a walled in area for outdoor playgrounds, up to and including a swing set, a sandbox and several high-end cameras connected to Shiori-san's office, surveying the entire area, 24/7, all year-round.
Her schedule for her training had been overwhelming at first, yes. Learning how to navigate the building, the uses of each and every piece of equipment they had, learning all the areas until she could walk from one to the next without thinking, and most of all, the standard protocol for all children concerning safety and abduction.
It was…enlightening. And paranoia-inducing, yes, but Ai felt this one was pretty justified.
All that in between working with Shiori-san about schedules, homework, group projects and university woes.
In the end, Ai was slated to go work during the mornings, class during the afternoons stretching into the nights, and hibernation during Sunday where there weren't a lot of drop-offs happening.
Two weeks at the nursery had gotten Ai a bit more used to her new life. Sure, Keiko had to constantly drop her off because apparently she couldn't trusted to travel more than 500 meters on her own, but the job itself wasn't the most difficult of things to manage. It was, in its own way, kind of fun. A great way to start the crisp mornings.
But today it was hot.
No, it was sweltering.
Ai was fairly sure she was losing brain cells to evaporation as she walked from the side of the street towards the nursery's front doors.
"Ai-chan," Shiori-san called at her from across the field with a broom in hand, prompting Ai to look up from where she was trudging along the path, "Your charges are here, better hurry!"
Ai's entire being lit up. She rushed to the doors, pulling them open, the rush of air-conditioned temperature rejuvenating her. But, more importantly, were the two children sitting by the Lego area, building another skyscraper with technicolor blocks.
The receptionist looked at her with amusement, taking her bag – which Ai usually took with her so she wouldn't have to circle back to her dorm after work before class – and let Ai quietly try to sneak up on two unsuspecting children.
The other caretakers knew the routine by now, and led the other children stifling their giggles away from the scene.
Ai could see Etsuko start to lift her head up, long brown hair strewn about her head. Shizuka, with his short-clean cropped brown hair stuffed under a cap sat beside her, and blinked at his friend. Ai's window was closing . She had to strike while the iron was hot.
Ai immediately knelt behind her charge, and gently placed her hands over Etsuko's eyes, calling, "Who is it?"
Higura placed both of her hands over his mouth, niggling, tiny shoulders shaking.
Etsuko, who probably already knew based on Ai's voice, pet both of Ai's hands with her own, "Mmmm," she hummed in contemplation, "Mama?"
"No~pe!" Ai popped the 'p', making Higura go into another fit of giggles. Hee waddled over, petting two tiny hands over Esuko's own, laid flat against Ai's.
Etsuko hummed again, "Higu, help?"
"Nuh uh," Higura replied, grinning up at Ai with a face full of braces, "Guess, guess!"
"Mmmm," Etsuko hummed again,"Is it...nee-chan?"
"Right!" Ai released her charge with a cheer. Etsuko whirled around to give Ai a bright grin, hands reaching upwards. Higura followed suit, and Ai wrapped her arms over both of her charges.
"Good morning!" they greeted, then scrambled over to their construction site, presenting it with fanning hands.
"Nee-chan, we made a skyscraper!"
"I did the lower part, Etsu did the upper part—"
Ai did her best to look amazed – not that it was hard, since her charges were quite talented, even if she did so say herself.
"That looks amazing," she gushed to them, and the girls' eyes brightened, "Good job, both of you!"
And so the day passed like it did the first time Ai had gotten her charges – supervised playing over at the play area, some snacks during midmorning recess, reading to them whichever book they requested (though the kids had placed dibs on Annie the Builder since they first got there) and whatever outdoor activities Shiori-san planned for the children.
Which was cut short due to the heat, and as Ai ushered the kids back inside, she noticed the film of sweat covering the girls' brows. They plopped down on the bench settled beside the door leading to the backyard, legs swinging back and forth. Ai rummaged around her pockets for the tissue pack she had gotten into the habit of carrying everywhere, then crouched down to wipe at the girl's faces.
That done, and leaving the kids to chat between them in relative privacy, Ai took out her phone. Ai, being the assigned caretaker for the two kids, had the numbers of both sets of parents, and were tasked to contact either in case of an emergency, or if there was a question that needed to be answered.
Like right now.
Ai texted them, "Would it be alright for Etsuko/Higura to get ice cream? Or would it ruin their appetite too much?"
Both parental sets told her to go for it, and Ai tucked her phone back into her pocket. She turned to her charges, with a smile, "Let's go get your hats, yeah?"
"Why?" Etsuko asked, hand in hand with Ai on her right, with Higura on the left.
Ai only grinned, "You'll see."
Chocolate was the standard affair, which Ai was a little sick of, but bought anyway because the kids' twin puppy eyes always worked. Personally she was more of a fan of strawberry, which her charges generously let her have a single scoop of in the sundae.
A single sundae, because feeding either child a full cone each seemed like a bad idea, split between the three of them. It was a good thing the ice cream parlor was literally next door, otherwise she wouldn't have been allowed to take them out of the nursery. That, and the fact that the owner was a trusted friend of Shiori's, and so presented minimal risk.
Ai took the kids and seated them at the only open booth at the far end of the parlor, sitting at the open aisle while her charges sat further in the booth. It was part of the standard protocol, with the caretaker presenting as a shield between the children and possible abduction.
The parlor was busy, which, yeah expected, and Ai was only paying half-attention to the kids' conversation, most of her neural activity was dedicated to eyeing every person nearing them. God knew how many strangers had the habit of coming up to the girls to try and pet them without their permission. It had made Higura cry from sheer discomfort more than once and Ai was not about to stand for it, not when they were her charges and their previous caretaker had.
(She wouldn't learn until later that this was the exact reason Keiko had referred Ai to Shiori for the job.)
Ai ate with the girls, ordering a few glasses of light iced tea from her own pockets. As the kids finished their part of the sundae, the door opened.
Ai looked up, an spotted white. All white. her heart started to race. Two of them, one of them her nameless officer and his partner (?), making a beeline for the counter. Were they on break? They had to be, she didn't think officers were allowed to just go and get ice cream while on duty.
Truth be told, she didn't have much of a chance to talk to the officer from the weeks before, both of them being far too busy and their schedules hardly letting them see each other. The most they could do, whenever they saw each other across the street, was a friendly wave.
Which..apparently attracted interested stares from his colleagues, but since the officer seemed to brush them off easily, she supposed it wasn't a problem.
Except that interested stare was now being directed at her, from across the room, from the officer she usually saw with her….friend? Could they even be called friends?
While contemplating this, the officer had crossed the parlor with a single cone of vanilla ice cream in hand and stopped by their table. Despite herself, Ai tensed just the slightest bit so due to the sudden proximity.
"Oh, sorry," he backed up a bit, then grinned at them from under a white cap, his perfectly white hair – could he and her nameless officer be related? – perfectly parted at the middle in a messy fringe, "Can I sit down with you?"
Seeing that the parlor was both full, she knew the man's face and was aware that he was with her officer a lot, Ai looked over to the children. Had she been by herself, she wouldn't have minded. But if her charges showed any sign of discomfort, she'd have to turn him away.
Higura looked up and beamed, "Ha-san!"
Etsuko merely waved enthusiastically, one spoonful of ice cream still in her mouth.
Oh.
Well, then.
Ai turned back to the officer and waved him towards the seats across from them in the booth. He sat down with a plop, "Hey! Sorry I haven't been around lately. I've been busy beating back bad guys."
"We know," Etsuko replied, nodding, her voice grave and her face spattered with chocolate ice cream. Ai had to pull out her pack of tissues again.
While she set to work on Etsuko, Higura piped up, "Story-time, Ha-san?"
"'Ha-san?'" Ai quoted under her breath, peeking over to the office under her lashes. He was grinning at Higura, but he caught her gaze.
Tugging at his hat, he replied, "Haruki Satou, at your service! I think you know my partner? He was the one who drove you to the station some weeks ago. You know, Sh—"
"Wait!" Ai stood up, screeching, making every eye in the parlor swing towards her. She could feel the blood rushing to her head, and with that, came out the torrent of half-intelligible statements, somewhere among the lines of:
"I want to ask for myself, please!" and "We made a half, sorta, kinda, promise last time and I don't think it's a good idea to back out on it?!" and "I'm so sorry for yelling!"
The silence immediately following the outburst was, well.
"…It's good to see you again."
The nameless officer, holding a cup of cold tea that the parlor liked to serve on weekdays.
Oh no. Oh god, no.
"May I also sit down with you?"
Mortifying.
Ai plopped back down on her seat, faint, half-dead and probably drowning in her own blood as she did so, because clearly her head was going to explode soon from sheer humiliation. She let him sit with a gesture, at which point he silently took one directly across from her.
When did he ever get here?! No, moreover, why was she such an idiot?!
"Nee-chan?"
"Eh, is something wrong with nee-chan, Etsu?"
"Sh-She's fine! I think. Don't worry!" inwardly, Ai thanked Satou's valiant efforts at allaying the girls' worries, because she was clearly not in the position to perform any type of cognitive function at the current.
She let her face fall into her hands.
"…S-so, you're the new employee at Shiori-san's, miss?" Satou inquired, making Ai peek up between her fingers, because he was obviously trying to allay the atmosphere and the effort was sweet.
"Yeah," she murmured, "It's a part-time job, actually. I still go to university."
At Satou's curious hum, she elaborated, "I'm taking up nursing."
Sure, she was still hiding most of her face in her hands, but she could peek between her fingers and completely avoid her nameless officer's eyes.
"Really?" Satou's head tilted to the side, "So, tell me, miss, how are you still…functioning? Most of the nurses-in-training back at our hometown were basically…"
He made a vague gesture, his face scrunching up just a bit into an expression Ai couldn't recognize.
"Zombies?" Ai filled out for him, because it was both true and a daily thing for her to watch. Her fellow nursing students trudging from one class to another half awake with a cup of coffee in hand. It would have been funny if she didn't know exactly how it felt.
"Caffiends living off coffee, but sure."
A pun. Could cops even make puns? It was so lame.
It was great.
Despite herself, Ai snorted, "No, no, that's the engineering and architecture students."
"I'm pretty sure those guys bleed coffee by now, not live off it."
Ai chuckled, hands finally lowering from her face, "What was your university like? Erm, both of you."
Ai expected a lot of things, she did not expect Satou to suddenly start laughing and for her nameless officer to half choke on his tea, "W-what?"
"Cadet days!" Satou exclaimed, hands slamming flat on the table, "Partner, you take this up. Tell her about third year."
"Er—"
When her nameless officer gave his partner a flat glare, Ai raised her hands, "It's okay - "
Her nameless officer set his tea down, then smiled at her, "What he really means is that he was an awful bunkmate—"
"What—"
"—and we were stuck together throughout most of our third year, so I usually had to deal with his snoring during the night. Once it had gotten so bad that our friends from the other rooms had barged in—"
"Okay, wow, you can stop now—"
"—and threw a pillow at his face to wake him up. When that didn't work—"
"This is not according to plan—"
"—and he continued sleeping, the prankster among our friends decided to start piling things on top of his face so they'd fall on him and wake him up—"
"Goddammit Yu—"
"—We even put a cat on his face and that still didn't wake him up, so we gave in and all slept in another room."
"You guys said that the cat broke in!"
"Oh. We lied."
Satou gaped, Ai finally broke out laughing and the children giggled. The nameless officer set his cup down, then gave her a small smile, "I'm sorry for sneaking up on you, are you alright now?"
"No, it's okay! That was mostly my fault, anyway," Ai raised her hands, splaying her fingers in front of her, "And…yes. I'm okay now.
Ai slowly lowered her hands, her lips tugging upwards, "Thank you."
Ai could see Satou eyeing his partner from where he sat, his brows slowly lifting into his hairline. She didn't get it.
"How has your job been?" he inquired, and Ai brightened.
"It's great!" she beamed, "It was a little hard at first to balance it with my schedule but Shiori-san and I worked something out in the end! And—"
Satou tried his damnest to keep the grin off his face, even as he kept an eye out for the kids while their caretaker was momentarily distracted.
One glance at his partner confirmed that the feeling was mutual.
This was gonna be….interesting.
Time ticked on by, and before Ai knew it, it was time to leave. Leading the kids back in hand from a bathroom trip, she stopped by the booth they had occupied earlier.
"It was nice talking to the both of you," Ai said sweetly. The entire thing had only taken up maybe ten minutes, but it had been an enjoyable time.
Satou grinned up at her, and…elbowed his partner, for some reason.
"You as well," the nameless officer said, quietly sipping at his tea once more. His partner gave him a mild glare.
Which…okay, she still didn't know his name, and he did say she could ask for his it, but she just felt like it wasn't the time…? It felt awkward asking for it, now that they were leaving.
"W-well," Ai stammered, but mustered up a grin at the last moment, "See you around!"
As she led the kids back to the nursery, she couldn't help but look back. She missed her chance. It wasn't like this would be the last time they'd ever cross paths again, but…
Still.
"Nee-chan, tissue, please."
Etsuko pointed to her forehead, now coated in a thin film of sweat.
Ai checked her pockets for some tissues, and found that her packet was gone. Guess she left it somewhere.
"Come on, I think Shiori-san has some extras."
Hours pass, and when the clock strikes 12 she hands the girls over to their parents. They bid her goodbye with a hug and a promise to see each other again, which Ai always gave.
"Promise?" Higura, little Higura who always got attached to his caretakers and devastated when they were taken away, held up his pinky finger.
Ai hooked hers with the child's and shook, "Promise."
And with that, ended another day at the nursery.
"Shiori-san! I'll be leaving now!" Ai called, taking her bag from her issued locker while the receptionist grumbled into his logbook. She'd have maybe a quarter of an hour to get back to the university. If she went by bus and train she'd make it in time for a mad dash to class.
Shiori hummed back a reply from her office, probably busy with the camera feeds. And so Ai went off.
Back into the heat.
Ai slumped, but walked over to the road anyway. A bus taking her to a stop….near the train leading to her university should be here an minute now. Any minute, however, tended to stretch into any hour under that kind of sweltering hell. Ai wilted under the sun. Who gave it permission to come out today, anyway?
The place where she stood did give her a great view of the station across the street, though. As luck would have it,she spotted Satou coming out of the building with his hat off, being used to fan himself. He spotted her and waved, then ran back into the station with an exclamation she couldn't hear.
Two minutes later, her nameless officer came out, being dragged into the light by his partner.
Oh.
Oh god.
After several verbal exchanges, most of which Ai could't hear, she saw her nameless officer look at her.
And started to walk towards her.
Ai's entire brain short-circuited with every step he took, closing the gap between them in a few easy strides.
She looked up, at his half covered face, and found his expression soft.
"…Hello," she greeted warmly.
"We meet again," he replied kindly, then fished something out of his pocket. Oh, so that's where her packet of tissues went, "You forgot some things."
"Thank you," she said, accepting the tissue, holding it against her chest, "Um…what else did I forget?"
She didn't think she left anything else there, and the girls didn't say anything about leaving their things behind. Looking up, she found her nameless officer tugging his cap low, his only visible eye looking elsewhere.
"…Shirogane, Yuichi," he said. Ai felt her entire head go blank. Forgot some things. Some things. Forget to ask for his name apparently oh god.
So he'd taken it upon himself to give them to her.
It was clearly the heat making her face go as red as it was, clearly.
"A-Aka—" Ai cleared her throat shakily, "Akagawa, Ai. It's nice to meet you!"
When he finally, finally looked at her, his eyes were soft.
Ai stared, then broke out into a grin.
"Thank you for your company earlier, Akagawa-san," he murmured, one hand still at the edge of his cap, "See you later."
"O-oh, yes, okay!"
With that, he left with a wave, to the squad car that his partner had pulled out in front of the station and leaving Ai to scramble into the bus with a frazzled mind.
